Speaker 1: School of Humans. This show follows the investigation of serial
Speaker 1: murders and contains material that may be disturbing. Listener discretion advised.
Speaker 2: In late December of twenty fifteen, LaRue Stein made a
Speaker 2: call to Discovery Life Insurance inquiring about a payout due
Speaker 2: to his aunt, Cecilia Stein.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for holding for me, Luro. I
Speaker 3: am waiting in the system to generate the claim number
Speaker 3: for us maker. I'm going to also need your.
Speaker 2: E After Michaela's death, Zach Valentine received five hundred thousand
Speaker 2: rand or twenty seven four hundred and seventy US dollars
Speaker 2: from her life insurance policy. Cecilia, recognizing this as a
Speaker 2: potential way to make a lot of fast money, ensured
Speaker 2: that she was named as Zach's soul beneficiary.
Speaker 3: Did he have any kids or one?
Speaker 4: He didn't have kids, and his wife was quite nice.
Speaker 4: Actually we knew her quite well as well. But a
Speaker 4: few years ago they broke into the house and said
Speaker 4: that she was there and she got murdered as well.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, say man.
Speaker 2: The insurance agent then askel Rue if Zach was his
Speaker 2: best friend, Well, basically.
Speaker 4: I've known him since I was basically twelve years old,
Speaker 4: and we did create it together. We went fishing together,
Speaker 4: we did together. I didn't have a follow in my
Speaker 4: life or a big brother, so he was maybe a
Speaker 4: big brother as a father and everything he was and
Speaker 4: he's the only my own old model in my life.
Speaker 4: So I just turned twenty the other day. I mean,
Speaker 4: we did everything together, man, That's why we were really close.
Speaker 4: And that's why he said, if anything happen, make sure
Speaker 4: his mom is okay, he's cats okay, his family everything
Speaker 4: sort out.
Speaker 3: And what's your mom's name.
Speaker 4: My mom's plame is Miranda Arenda. And my aunt's name
Speaker 4: whose nine him? Since you was basically seven years old,
Speaker 4: Cecilia status.
Speaker 3: I see, So I'll forward it through to the broker.
Speaker 3: You're more than welcome to contact the broker if you
Speaker 3: want to deal with it, and you can get a
Speaker 3: little of racharity from the beneficiary.
Speaker 2: The rue tells the insurance agent that the beneficiary is
Speaker 2: right there with us.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the room, but she's like, she really devastated. Must
Speaker 4: I give her the phone by any jones?
Speaker 3: Okay, you can. If she can agree for me to
Speaker 3: send the requirements through to you, then that will be fine.
Speaker 3: I won't need to send it to the broker.
Speaker 4: Okay, just give me a sure he's the agreement.
Speaker 2: For I don't know about you, but to me, those
Speaker 2: sound like real tears. It would make sense after all
Speaker 2: the rue had been through that lies or not, he
Speaker 2: was genuinely distraught. He put Cecilia Stein on the line.
Speaker 3: Ill, Hi am speaking sill she lasteyn Cecilia, please, can
Speaker 3: you come from your ID for me? Okay, it's uh,
Speaker 3: that's not I don't know what it means, you know. Okay,
Speaker 3: can you just give me such hard No problem.
Speaker 2: Cecilia sobs into the phone for a while, and then
Speaker 2: returns and gives the agent her idea number.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much, Cecilia. Okay, can you just come
Speaker 3: from and re reside for me over the phone if
Speaker 3: it's took care for me to send the requirements to
Speaker 3: the ruse email.
Speaker 4: Address used to work with doc I Discoveries.
Speaker 3: Only two thousands, Okay, no problem, Thank you very much,
Speaker 3: and I'm very sorry for you last day.
Speaker 5: Thank you very much.
Speaker 6: Pleasure.
Speaker 3: Okay, bye bye.
Speaker 2: The responsibility of claiming this payout was now in the
Speaker 2: hands of a twenty year old LaRue Stein from School
Speaker 2: of Humans and iHeart podcasts. This is Queen Havoc and
Speaker 2: her murder Cult. I'm your host, Kurt Koubachak, Episode seven,
Speaker 2: Abhorrent Behavior.
Speaker 7: This is so good.
Speaker 2: It's a warm winter day here in Johannesburg. Journalist Jana
Speaker 2: Marx invited us over to enjoy a traditional South African
Speaker 2: bride a gathering outdoors. Yanna makes us feel right at home.
Speaker 2: The flames of the fire, look at the meat on
Speaker 2: the grill, several different meats season with Paprika, cloves, brown show, bugger,
Speaker 2: and honey. The aromas are new, but familiar and wonderfully inviting.
Speaker 2: As we dig into the bride, we discussed possibly heading
Speaker 2: out to downtown Joe Burt to one of the biggest
Speaker 2: sports matches in the country to watch the spring Box
Speaker 2: play rugby. After lunch, we dive into more details of
Speaker 2: the case involving Joan and Peter Meyer. This double homicide
Speaker 2: is the first of what would become known as the
Speaker 2: Appointment murders.
Speaker 8: It could have been me and you. They were doing
Speaker 8: regular jobs, showing up for appointment and they were killed.
Speaker 2: The Krugersdorp Killings is an umbrella title given to all
Speaker 2: the murders carried out by Electus Perdaeis. But there were
Speaker 2: two waves. The revenge killings aimed at Ria Grunewald that
Speaker 2: took place in twenty twelve, and then the appointment murders
Speaker 2: seven killings that occurred between November of twenty fifteen and
Speaker 2: June of two thousand and six. Team these happened in
Speaker 2: such quick succession that Krugersdorp was once again consumed by fear.
Speaker 2: Investigative journalist Maritzka kots Here lived in the area at
Speaker 2: the time and covered this second wave of homicides. You know,
Speaker 2: it was scary because you didn't know who the killers were.
Speaker 1: You know, you think a serial killer, but what does
Speaker 1: a serial killer look like?
Speaker 3: It can be anyone around us.
Speaker 2: Reflecting on the case files, detective Ben Boyson thought the
Speaker 2: murder of Joan and Peter Meyer looked like a classic
Speaker 2: robbery gone wrong, but the seasoned detective kept turning over
Speaker 2: the facts.
Speaker 7: I think Cecilia told him that it must be a robbery.
Speaker 7: But I think at the end of the day, Marenda
Speaker 7: and Zack by himself decided, no, we're going to get
Speaker 7: this ten million run from his house and then.
Speaker 6: We're going to kill them.
Speaker 7: Because if you go and rob somebody, you cover your face.
Speaker 2: By this logic, no mass were necessary for Mirenda and Zach.
Speaker 2: While Cecilia she may have forgiven this betrayal of her orders,
Speaker 2: she had not forgotten it. If Zach Valentine had come
Speaker 2: back to her with millions of rants instead of a
Speaker 2: measly forty or so bucks, she might have let it slide.
Speaker 1: The plan was to go rob them, and then the
Speaker 1: robbery became a murder.
Speaker 6: The fact that Zach killed them.
Speaker 1: Angered even more, because that was never part of a plan.
Speaker 2: Because of this epic failure by Zach, Cecilia shifted her
Speaker 2: strategy for fattening her and epd's coffers. To do that,
Speaker 2: EPD would have to be more loyal than vengeful, more
Speaker 2: brains and less blood. Zach's life insurance policy was worth
Speaker 2: three point five million Rand roughly two hundred thousand US dollars.
Speaker 2: That would go a long way, and thus they'd all agreed.
Speaker 2: Zach concluded he needed to die, except not really. As
Speaker 2: long as the cops and insurance company never caught on.
Speaker 2: Zach was worth a lot more dead than alive. All
Speaker 2: they needed now was a corpse and a fool proof
Speaker 2: hiding spot. Jared Jackson was a forty one year old
Speaker 2: street vendor. Jared and his partner Candace, both struggled with addiction.
Speaker 2: To make money, they sold snacks outside the hospital, the
Speaker 2: one across the street from Casana Flats. Here's detective Ben Boysen.
Speaker 7: So they befriend it Garret because he was a homeless
Speaker 7: guy and who's going to miss only his golfriend and
Speaker 7: they were both sleeping on the street.
Speaker 2: Unfortunately, to Cecilia, Jared was someone the cops overwhelmed as
Speaker 2: they were probably wouldn't spend too much time looking for. Also,
Speaker 2: he and Zach could easily be mistaken for one another,
Speaker 2: especially from far away. But there was one person who
Speaker 2: would never mistake Jared for anyone else, his fiance, Candace Ellison.
Speaker 2: She sat for an interview broadcast on jack Randa FM
Speaker 2: in February of twenty twenty two. She reflected a bit
Speaker 2: on what came.
Speaker 1: Before growing up in difficult household, getting into drugs to survive,
Speaker 1: and thinking that was the answer every bad, horrible story
Speaker 1: you hear. I've pretty much loved.
Speaker 2: It, but then she met Jared.
Speaker 1: Girls are raised to look for their prince charming, and
Speaker 1: it's something that I did constantly trying to find that
Speaker 1: beautiful moment, and I met Jared and we had beautiful moments.
Speaker 1: And we also went to hell together quite literally on
Speaker 1: the street heroin addicts, and it was not something I
Speaker 1: would put my worst enemy through.
Speaker 2: But in twenty fifteen, Candace was pregnant and the couple
Speaker 2: was actively trying to find a path toward as sober,
Speaker 2: healthy life. That's when they met Cecilia Steine.
Speaker 1: He met Cecilia and the whole group, Zaka and Marinda
Speaker 1: and all of them. And at the time, I remember thinking,
Speaker 1: all these people are a little bit off, but they
Speaker 1: seem to really care, they want to help. And it's
Speaker 1: only afterwards that I realized that we were being groomed.
Speaker 2: Throughout the winter of twenty fifteen, Cecilia conditioned Jared Jackson
Speaker 2: and his fiance Candice Ellison to think that she was
Speaker 2: someone who really cared about them and wanted to help.
Speaker 2: Keep in mind, the seasons in South Africa are the
Speaker 2: opposite of those in the States. First, she hired Jared
Speaker 2: to sort through her storage room. She said he could
Speaker 2: take whatever he liked and sell it if he got
Speaker 2: rid of everything else for her. Later Cecilia offered the
Speaker 2: room to Jared and candas as a place to crash.
Speaker 2: There was no running water, and at night they would
Speaker 2: have to be locked inside the tiny space so that
Speaker 2: the other residents wouldn't get suspicious. But they needed the help,
Speaker 2: and the couple was grateful. After all, it was cold
Speaker 2: outside and at least they had each other. They were
Speaker 2: off the streets and in love. Then one day the
Speaker 2: following summer, on December sixteenth, twenty fifteen, he.
Speaker 1: Walked out the door, looked back and said, just remember
Speaker 1: I will always love you. And at the time I
Speaker 1: was like, oh yeah, just just go come back just now,
Speaker 1: not realizing what a moment that that would be the
Speaker 1: last moment.
Speaker 2: Zach and Cecilia made a point to run into Jared
Speaker 2: that day. They said they needed his help with something
Speaker 2: out of town. Cecilia lied and told him Zach was
Speaker 2: epileptic and unable to drive alone. They appealed to Jared's
Speaker 2: good nature and asked him to help. She'd been so
Speaker 2: good to him and Candace after all, and they could
Speaker 2: even advance him one hundred rand. Jared broke and, indebted
Speaker 2: to Cecilia, agreed. That was at four thirty pm. By nightfall,
Speaker 2: Candace got.
Speaker 1: Worried Jared didn't come home, which was totally unlike him.
Speaker 1: He didn't stray very far.
Speaker 2: When Jared still wasn't back by morning, Candace knew something
Speaker 2: was terribly wrong. She tried calling Cecilia but got no response,
Speaker 2: so she walked over to Casana Flats. Cecilia came to
Speaker 2: the door when she saw Candace standing there. Cecilia's face
Speaker 2: changed suddenly. She was in tears, sobbing while she explained
Speaker 2: that Zach had been in an accident. He had a
Speaker 2: seizure while he was driving, and he was now in
Speaker 2: a coma cannas fell part. She assumed Jared must have
Speaker 2: been in the car with Zack, but Cecilia reassured Candace
Speaker 2: that Jared had bailed on the trip altogether.
Speaker 1: I went to Cecilia's house, knowing that he'd gone there,
Speaker 1: and she was like, nope, I never saw him. He
Speaker 1: never came.
Speaker 2: Meanwhile, the charred wreckage of a silver BMW was discovered
Speaker 2: tucked into the tall grassland off to the side of
Speaker 2: the road in petrus Stein, a little over two hours
Speaker 2: south of Krueger'sdorp, burned beyond recognition. Officers found no skid marks,
Speaker 2: no broken glass, no signs of a collision of any kind.
Speaker 2: But inside they found a body.
Speaker 9: He was found in a car with a pipe through
Speaker 9: the exhaust, and then the pulice said, okay, he committed suicide.
Speaker 2: The previous afternoon, Zach drove the BMW that same car,
Speaker 2: which was due to be repossessed by the bank, with
Speaker 2: Jared there in the passenger seat, LaRue just behind him.
Speaker 2: It's not hard to imagine them when ripping through the
Speaker 2: windows and a South African summer evening, Jared squinting in
Speaker 2: the dusty light, turning inward as they leave the city limits.
Speaker 2: The way a long car ride urges reflection from the
Speaker 2: back seat. LaRue hands Jared a mango juice he packed
Speaker 2: for the drive. Jared drinks it down quickly. As the
Speaker 2: minutes pass with the setting sun, it can't stay awake,
Speaker 2: sleeping pills again. LaRue slowly unravels blue and red twine
Speaker 2: from a spool. With one quick move, he sits forward
Speaker 2: and loops the twine around Jared's throat there in the
Speaker 2: seat in front of him. Jared struggles, He flails, He
Speaker 2: kicks the dashboard, fighting for his life, but without air.
Speaker 2: He can't fight for long. As Jared thrashes, Zak almost
Speaker 2: loses control. The silver BMW swerves across the lane. In
Speaker 2: the car behind them, Mirinda and John Barnard follow. A
Speaker 2: few jagged moments pass Zach's car slows and pulls off
Speaker 2: to the side of the road. That's their signal, Jared
Speaker 2: Jackson is dead. They prop his lifeless body up behind
Speaker 2: the wheel. Zak plants his phone on the passenger seat,
Speaker 2: evidence to be found. Next, John and LaRue loop a
Speaker 2: hose from the car's exhaust pipe and feed it into
Speaker 2: the front window. They pour paraffin wax on the car
Speaker 2: and push the BMW through the grass toward the tree line.
Speaker 2: A match is thrown, the car goes up. It burns
Speaker 2: bright and hot, a blossom of flames against the dark
Speaker 2: as the three men stare at the fire, licking the
Speaker 2: Knight's air. Jared's body will be of little use to
Speaker 2: any investigator, or so they hoped.
Speaker 9: You couldn't even see that it's a human being.
Speaker 5: It's like a piece of an animal that was burnt
Speaker 5: in a feltfire.
Speaker 2: Now they had a body. Next, it was time to
Speaker 2: make the reel. Zach Valentine disappear.
Speaker 7: When they killed Tedet, they brought Zach to this hotel,
Speaker 7: de Ahrabert Hotel.
Speaker 9: So this is the first place where he was hiding.
Speaker 2: The next morning, while Candace searched for Jared, Marinda called
Speaker 2: the officer who had been investigating the Meyer murders. She
Speaker 2: contacted him on his private cell phone number. She explained
Speaker 2: in a quivering voice that Zach died the previous night.
Speaker 2: He would not be taking his polygraph tests later that month.
Speaker 2: Mirinda also requested that her own tests be postponed to
Speaker 2: January seventh, twenty sixteen, three weeks away. The officer agreed
Speaker 2: to the rescheduling, but was then quickly consumed by the
Speaker 2: constant barrage of other present cases.
Speaker 5: After Zach died, and actually got so much cases that
Speaker 5: the guys went cold.
Speaker 7: The last entry in that.
Speaker 5: Murder was in January twenty sixteen, and I took over
Speaker 5: in June July twenty to sixteen, So from January till
Speaker 5: that time nothing happened.
Speaker 2: On that case. By now, Mirinda felt she was a
Speaker 2: pro at evading law enforcement. Lucky for the people of
Speaker 2: Kruger's Door, Discovery Life insurance was far more thorough than
Speaker 2: the police less overwhelmed and trained to sniff out fraud.
Speaker 2: That same morning, after successfully shaking the police off their trail,
Speaker 2: Mirinda traveled out of town to the morgue to identify
Speaker 2: Zach Valentine's dead body. This was the first step in
Speaker 2: the process of claiming his life insurance policy. She posed
Speaker 2: as his sister, and she brought along a friend. Remember
Speaker 2: Cecilia's husband Drees. The cop well his brother in law
Speaker 2: tagged along and posed as Mirenda's husband. A seemingly suspect ruse,
Speaker 2: but will keep going. According to Detective Ben and Colonel
Speaker 2: Christelle Boysen, the four couple allegedly made a shady deal
Speaker 2: with the coroner in charge of Jared Jackson's burned up body.
Speaker 8: Even the mortuary official that allowed this identification. They paid
Speaker 8: off because we will never accept an identification like this
Speaker 8: to say this is my brother. There has to be
Speaker 8: DNA taken to say this is my DNA, this is
Speaker 8: my brother's DNA.
Speaker 2: The two seasoned officers told us that typically the mortuary
Speaker 2: official must provide a written statement confirming the identity of
Speaker 2: a body. This process is supposed to be done under
Speaker 2: oath in the presence of a law enforcement official.
Speaker 7: She took a statement from them, and then she owtho
Speaker 7: statement her self, using another police officer's signature, defrauding it.
Speaker 2: Now armed with doctored paperwork, Marinda had it straight to
Speaker 2: the funeral home. She requested they handle the cremation as
Speaker 2: soon as possible. To do so required written permission from
Speaker 2: next of kin in this case, Zach's parents. Thrown by
Speaker 2: this surprise, Mirinda and her fake husband agreed to return
Speaker 2: the following day with the written permission along with payment. Cecilia,
Speaker 2: in the meantime, was on damage control. Working from the
Speaker 2: safety of Cassana Flats. She placated a frantic Canvae, still
Speaker 2: searching for her fiance.
Speaker 1: She said, I'll help you. Look, I'll contact the morgue,
Speaker 1: I will contact the hospitals. And she seemed genuinely of
Speaker 1: said she was going to help me look, and then
Speaker 1: that she even obviously we were still really struggling. She
Speaker 1: gave me fifty rand. She said, here, go get something
Speaker 1: to eat. I'll let you know if I hear anything.
Speaker 2: Unfortunately, the appointment murders would continue to stain Krugersdorp with blood,
Speaker 2: while Discovery Life Insurance stalled on the Zach Valentine payout.
Speaker 2: The company eventually conducted their own investigation, which included a
Speaker 2: house call an in person interview with the beneficiary. Cecilia
Speaker 2: had been preparing for this role her entire life.
Speaker 6: Wayzy's wife. She died three years ago.
Speaker 2: The insurance investigation conducted by Discovery Life was recorded on video.
Speaker 2: The assessors wore body cams to preserve evidence, safeguard themselves,
Speaker 2: and confirm the validity of the claim. In matters of
Speaker 2: grief and money, emotions run high, and beloved or even
Speaker 2: estranged relatives may act erratically. The audio we're going to
Speaker 2: share with you now is pulled from the shaky video
Speaker 2: of Cecilia's interview with these representatives. It starts as the
Speaker 2: insurance agents enter Cecilia's apartment.
Speaker 5: Hello.
Speaker 2: There are quite a few things that stand out about
Speaker 2: this initial impression of Cassana Flats. First and foremost, it's
Speaker 2: the noise. There is a din that surrounds and penetrates
Speaker 2: Casana Flats. There's the swinging of rusted iron and steel
Speaker 2: slamming against metal framed doorways. The city bus and cars
Speaker 2: rush by, not to mention the hospital directly across the street,
Speaker 2: Sirens racing to and from the er, it's all a
Speaker 2: bit maddening. An app soundtrack to Cecilia's chaotic world. Cecilia
Speaker 2: settles in for the interview. She centers herself on the couch,
Speaker 2: a bit of a man spread. She looks quite at ease,
Speaker 2: But the tell for us is that the whole time
Speaker 2: she has a baseball cap pulled down low just over
Speaker 2: her spectacled eyes. She is in the center of the frame.
Speaker 2: The assessors sit directly across from Cecilia. The interviewer is
Speaker 2: the one wearing the body cam, so his voice is
Speaker 2: often louder than Cecilia's. His colleague is in the room
Speaker 2: off camera. He does all the talking and cuts right
Speaker 2: to the heart of the matter, Cecilia's relationship with Zach.
Speaker 6: Okay, you know him quite well. Okay, obviously that's why
Speaker 6: you us beneficiary was still married to his wife.
Speaker 2: So in case you miss that, she says, quote, I
Speaker 2: was his beneficiary when he was still married to his wife.
Speaker 2: It sounds like she's boasting here, and the interviewer calls
Speaker 2: her on it.
Speaker 6: Any specific reason that just sounds odd.
Speaker 1: Sorry, no, no, no, he had that before he got
Speaker 1: married and.
Speaker 6: I never changed it.
Speaker 2: Okay, strange that she felt the need to even mention
Speaker 2: that fact. Right, of course, they continue to inquire about
Speaker 2: Mikayla and his wife.
Speaker 6: WA's wife she died four years ago. Okay, and he
Speaker 6: never got remarried.
Speaker 4: No, okay, alright?
Speaker 6: And did they have any children.
Speaker 2: Cecilia mumbles something about Zach's diabetes and how he didn't
Speaker 2: want kids because of his condition. The investigator presses on.
Speaker 6: Did something bad happen to his wife or something? Yeah,
Speaker 6: and they broke into the house and.
Speaker 4: She got killed.
Speaker 2: F It's hard to hear, but she explains that Zach's
Speaker 2: wife died during a home invasion. She also tells him
Speaker 2: Michaela wasn't supposed to be home that day, which is
Speaker 2: creepy because, if you remember correctly, Mikayla died on a Thursday,
Speaker 2: the day she typically missed work to care for Cecilia.
Speaker 2: After this strange exchange, the insurance examiner refocuses his line
Speaker 2: of questioning.
Speaker 6: Mister Valent Andymnifad just referred toim as Zach post On
Speaker 6: the sixteenth of December last year in pietr Stein, in
Speaker 6: the freestyle from a car accident to Corburnt.
Speaker 2: They go over what all happened on the day Zach died,
Speaker 2: and ask about who Zach was in the eyes of
Speaker 2: his apparent closest friend. The agent wonders about Zach's likes
Speaker 2: and dislikes, his relationship to money, and even his mental
Speaker 2: and physical health. At this point, LaRue had entered the room.
Speaker 2: He sits perched on the arm of the couch almost
Speaker 2: out a frame on the right side. The insurance examiner
Speaker 2: asks if Zach ever had trouble with the law, any
Speaker 2: conflict with the law.
Speaker 6: I'm using the one that gets.
Speaker 2: Stuff I shouldn't be doing anything, LaRue says, quote, No,
Speaker 2: I'm usually the one that gets caught by the law
Speaker 2: doing stuff I shouldn't be doing. Then he tells about
Speaker 2: how he was shot when someone tried to rob him
Speaker 2: at gunpoint. Cecilia backs him up, saying, yeah, they tried
Speaker 2: to rob him. Laru doesn't want to say where he
Speaker 2: was wounded, but Cecilia is a bully about it. She's
Speaker 2: poking fun at him. They both know the truth. Laru
Speaker 2: accidentally shot himself in the groin while preparing the guns
Speaker 2: for the Meyer murders. He boasted the mail insurance investigator
Speaker 2: about how he had defended himself, and how he thought
Speaker 2: the gun the robbers had was a toy, because get this,
Speaker 2: his father has tons of big guns.
Speaker 6: I should die down to the floor.
Speaker 4: And as you wund to walk away because he's dumb
Speaker 4: and he pulled out a gun.
Speaker 6: I'm used to my father having massive guns, wastefully full
Speaker 6: of magnum.
Speaker 8: I mean, that's a massive of all gun.
Speaker 2: Laru's father is not in the picture, and he hasn't
Speaker 2: been for years. It's like Laru is living inside a
Speaker 2: figment of his own imagination. He goes on about this
Speaker 2: for like a full minute or two. Cecilia continues to laugh,
Speaker 2: and oddly enough, so does the insurance guy. I guess
Speaker 2: he's trying to keep some levity in the room.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that was that was don't tell your no no.
Speaker 2: I really just feel for LaRue in this moment when
Speaker 2: he sheepishly says that was actually bad as his response
Speaker 2: to Cecilia making light of a very serious situation. He's
Speaker 2: legally an adult at this point, twenty years old, and
Speaker 2: yet you can hear the child in him, the one
Speaker 2: who is morally abandoned, and this tall tale of his
Speaker 2: own bravery sounds to me like a desperate cry for
Speaker 2: help or a way out. The subtext here is a
Speaker 2: big SOS written in the sand, soon to be swept
Speaker 2: away by the rolling tide. That tide would arrive a
Speaker 2: bit later in the form of a man Detective Ben Boysen,
Speaker 2: when he was assigned to the case two months after
Speaker 2: this interview, he would immediately notice the changes made to
Speaker 2: Zach's insurance policy just before his death. The life insurance
Speaker 2: agent had questions about this too.
Speaker 6: The reason why I'm asking about the finances is because
Speaker 6: this policy was reasonably new at any started lock in November.
Speaker 2: Zach's policy was purchased in November, just one month before
Speaker 2: his death. But Cecilia had a defense in her pocket,
Speaker 2: which was that when Zach left his job at Discovery
Speaker 2: Life Insurance, he had to start all over purchasing a
Speaker 2: new policy. A while. But it turns out that his
Speaker 2: account had been delinquent for quite some time.
Speaker 6: He actually did not by a single premium.
Speaker 2: Coincidentally, Cecilia made a payment a few days before the
Speaker 2: fatal accident to bring the account current. The insurance investigator
Speaker 2: attempts to confirm this payment.
Speaker 6: Then there was a deposit mad a kesh deposit made
Speaker 6: to bring the policy in.
Speaker 2: To Lafayat, she explains her way out of this. She
Speaker 2: mumbles something vague about Zach's medical bills. His bank was closed,
Speaker 2: she says, so she deposited the money for him. It
Speaker 2: was like a bouquet of red flags. After some shuffling,
Speaker 2: the interview changes direction again, moving on to the required paperwork.
Speaker 2: Before a payout can be made, Discovery Life Insurance needs
Speaker 2: an official police statement confirming that it is in fact
Speaker 2: Zach beneath the charred remains. Now DRez enters the picture
Speaker 2: literally in the video, he sits close to his wife
Speaker 2: on the couch. He's practically on top of her. He's
Speaker 2: a somewhat large man in a brown T shirt. The
Speaker 2: couple explains that they are waiting on a second autopsy
Speaker 2: and DNA results. They are apparently trying to match DNA
Speaker 2: with Zach's parents. She says this is all far from
Speaker 2: the truth. Then, just as the agent is getting up
Speaker 2: to go, much like the TV detective Colombo, he says,
Speaker 2: just one more thing.
Speaker 6: Okay, there's something I'd like to ask you. This came
Speaker 6: to my Deska BA two three weeks ago. One of
Speaker 6: these clients locked the complaint against him. This client claims
Speaker 6: that Zech was running Ponzi scheme pyramid scheme with his
Speaker 6: clients that have complained that he took money from them.
Speaker 6: If that thing wasn't.
Speaker 8: Against Zach, it is from Rhino.
Speaker 2: To clarify, she says, if that complaint was on Zach,
Speaker 2: it's from Rena. Cecilia launches into a ran about someone
Speaker 2: Zach worked with at Discovery of Life who had it
Speaker 2: out for him. This person falsely accused him of cheating
Speaker 2: his clients. All these details will come out in the
Speaker 2: wash once detective Ben Boysen comes into the arena, so
Speaker 2: we'll return to this in a bit. Keep in mind
Speaker 2: this video was recorded in May of twenty sixteen, a
Speaker 2: full six months after the car was found with Jared's
Speaker 2: body inside. In the meantime, EPD resorted again to robbery
Speaker 2: and murder. Cannis's reflection eight years after Jared's murder is
Speaker 2: a reminder of just how cold and calculated Cecilia was.
Speaker 1: I don't think she thought it all about Jared's life.
Speaker 1: He was not a person. He was a means to
Speaker 1: an end. I think that is the hottest part of
Speaker 1: all of this, Even how it's been reported, there's been
Speaker 1: a lack of his humanity.
Speaker 2: Jared's humanity was lost on EPD, as was that of
Speaker 2: all the victims, and the majority of the reporting that
Speaker 2: was done very much focuses on the group and not
Speaker 2: on who Jared was. By the time journalists started writing
Speaker 2: about him, it was also being revealed that EPD had
Speaker 2: murdered ten other people, so individual victims kind of got
Speaker 2: lost in the mix. But Cannas's interview is a solid
Speaker 2: example of how EPD was destroying lives. Cannas's baby was
Speaker 2: born two months after her husband's disappearance. At this point,
Speaker 2: if there was any humanity left, any hope for redemption
Speaker 2: in the hearts of EPD, Cecilia made sure it was
Speaker 2: obliterated by their belief in her. What was once a
Speaker 2: Christian group bent on defeating Satan no longer needed a
Speaker 2: good reason to kill the innocent. As long as it
Speaker 2: pleased Cecilia, that was all that mattered. Now they were
Speaker 2: living in the play, the one where Cecilia plays an invalid,
Speaker 2: a bereaved friend, and a secret queen with loyal soldiers.
Speaker 2: Her reality was now their identity. It's incredible the show
Speaker 2: they put on. I mean, Cecilia's monologuing for Candace, forcing
Speaker 2: tears in front of the woman whose life she just decimated,
Speaker 2: Marenda's performance at the morgue and the funeral home, the
Speaker 2: two of them in concert leading a search party was
Speaker 2: Zac's parents. They even held a funeral for him that
Speaker 2: his family and friends attended and pretended to weep. And
Speaker 2: then there's this interview that happened while they were actively
Speaker 2: planning to murder more innocent people. I mean, it's staggering
Speaker 2: the lengths to which they would go to feel like
Speaker 2: they belonged to something larger than themselves. While the inconsistencies
Speaker 2: of this insurance fraud would be a sort of lynchpin
Speaker 2: in breaking the case, there would unfortunately be a lot
Speaker 2: more bloodshed before anyone would set foot in a courtroom,
Speaker 2: and the citizens of Krugersdorp would continue to be terrorized.
Speaker 1: It was kind of like an attack on my community, Like,
Speaker 1: who the hell is out there killing my people.
Speaker 2: On the next episode of Queen Havoc.
Speaker 1: Queen Kevin was murdered. That was the turning point.
Speaker 8: The first turning.
Speaker 5: Point, people thinking there's a serial murderer on the loose,
Speaker 5: marching to the police station and they were demanding actions.
Speaker 2: And so forth.
Speaker 9: Sometimes you need to watch what you wish for, because
Speaker 9: it can come true.
Speaker 1: This man comes, isn't tears, and he says to me, Marisco,
Speaker 1: thank goodness you are here?
Speaker 9: No right?
Speaker 1: How does this man know my name?
Speaker 5: That's why he was there when he was arrested.
Speaker 2: Queen Havoc in Her Murder Cult is a production of
Speaker 2: Schoolly Humans and iHeart Podcasts. Queen Havoc is hosted and
Speaker 2: created by me Kurt Kupachick, produced and written by Jennifer Takeney,
Speaker 2: Julia Chriscau, and Kirk Kupachick. Lead producer is Julia Chriskau.
Speaker 2: Story editor is Saren Burnett. Senior producer is Amelia Brock.
Speaker 2: Production manager is Daisy Church. Original music composed by Claire Campbell, Editing,
Speaker 2: sound design and scoring by Jesse Niswanger, Additional editing by
Speaker 2: Miranda Hawkins. Associated producers are DaShan Moodley and Jamaine Kriher.
Speaker 2: Additional producing by Ben Melman, fact checking by Dennis Webster.
Speaker 2: Recording engineers are Graham Gibson, Clay Hillenberg, and Josh Hook.
Speaker 2: Executive producers are Virginia Prescott, L. C. Crowley, Brandon Barr
Speaker 2: Jennifer to Kenney, and Kurt Kupachick. We want to thank
Speaker 2: all of those who so generously welcomed us in South
Speaker 2: Africa and shared their stories. We're incredibly grateful to you all.
Speaker 2: We also want to acknowledge how traumatic these events are
Speaker 2: for the victims and their families. Please respect their privacy.
Speaker 2: If you or someone you know has been affected by
Speaker 2: cult behaviors, there are resources available, including Voices for Dignity
Speaker 2: at Christine Murray dot com